Tourism up 2.1% last year

Tourist air departures from January to December last year totalled 1,150,769, an increase of 23,362 or 2.1 per cent over 2004, the National Statistics Office said British tourists, which accounted for 41.9 per cent of departures, increased by 6.6 per cent. Other registered increases included those from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and a group of 'other' markets. On the other hand, French tourists, who accounted for 7.1 per cent, decreased by five per cent. Other declining markets included Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Libya and the US.

In the period under review, the number of nights spent by tourists departing by air was estimated at 10,933,169, an increase of 0.4 per cent when compared to 2004.

The number of tourists opting for a stay in Gozo reached 62,113 - 5.4 per cent of the total - an increase of 18,408 tourists when compared to the same period a year earlier. Expenditure on package tours was estimated at Lm203.7 million, a decrease of Lm15.9 million or 7.2 per cent when compared to the previous year. Non-package tourists spent Lm50.1 million on airfares and Lm32.3 million on accommodation thereby increasing total expenditure on non-package travel by approximately Lm13.2 million or 19 per cent.

Other expenditure from both package and non-package tourists altogether decreased by Lm2.1 million to Lm141.4 million from Lm143.5 million in January-December 2004.

Total expenditure decreased by Lm4.8 million or 1.1 per cent.

In December 2005 alone, the number of tourists departing from Malta decreased by 1.9 per cent when compared to the corresponding month a year earlier, and reached a total of 40,413.